3pm update

Peacekeepers 'rushing' to Liberia

Fighting today raged around Monrovia's port as the government and rebel forces battled for control of the Liberian capital and west African leaders insisted they were speeding the first peacekeepers to the country.

Despite sporadic explosions and gunfire through the night, rebels said they were putting in place a ceasefire promised on Tuesday.

"It takes a couple days for the fighting to calm down," a rebel leader, Charles Benney, told the Associated Press by telephone.

"We don't want to take the country by force. We want to do it by negotiated settlement - a military takeover isn't in anyone's interest."

A three-year rebel campaign has pushed the Liberian president, Charles Taylor, a warlord from the 1989-96 civil war before his election, into Monrovia, his government's last stronghold.

Rebels from Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd) are in the midst of their third assault in two months on the capital, a war-gutted city of 1 million further crowded with hundreds of thousands of trapped refugees.

Fighting since Saturday in the capital has killed hundreds of civilians, leaving bodies lying in the streets and aid workers to bury other corpses on the city's beaches.

Battles have cut off the main supplies of water and food, with the port - crowded with warehouses holding food stocks - across the front line in rebel hands.

Mohamed Ibn Chambas, executive secretary of the economic community of west African states (Ecowas) today renewed promises that the first Nigerian peacekeepers would arrive within a week.

The first battalion will come from Sierra Leone, detaching from a UN peacekeeping force in the country, and a second will come from Nigeria itself. The United States has yet to say whether it will contribute to the force

But it is not clear whether the rebels will have to pull back before the green light is given for the deployment of the vanguard of the west African force.

Liberia's government today softened its stance on how far rebels had to retreat from Monrovia. The defence minister, Daniel Chea, told Reuters it would now be acceptable if the rebels pulled back to the Po river, 13 miles from the outskirts rather than all the way back to the rebel stronghold at Tubmanburg, another 25 miles further north.

"We do not want to fight. We are just defending. They attacked. They need to pull back. They are the aggressors and I think there is a lot of diplomatic pressure on them," he said.

The current conflict began three years ago after Guinea and Sierra Leone allegedly armed Lurd to repel an invasion from Mr Taylor's rebel allies in Sierra Leone.

The Liberian leader allegedly trafficked in guns and diamonds with the rebels Revolutionary United Front, who controlled the diamond fields, and is sought by a UN-backed court to stand trial for war crimes in Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war.

The Movement for Democracy in Liberia (Model) - a better armed rebel group - was launched this year from Ivory Coast after Mr Taylor's fighters invaded that country's western part. It today called on Lurd to pull back from Monrovia. "We don't want anyone else to die. They should adjust their positions," said spokesman Tiah Slanger.

Model has largely held its fire in its territory in eastern Liberia.

Mr Taylor has made repeated pledges to cede power since Lurd opened attacks two months ago on Monrovia.

In Accra, Ghana, a top aide to the president again pledged he would leave the day the Nigerian troops arrive. "When the interposition force arrives, Mr. Taylor will leave," Lewis Brown said.

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